USA Softball Region 9

Mike Trotter, 74, was a gifted athlete of 14 when his playing career got started in his hometown of Longview, Wash. To take advantage of his speed and hitting, he started as an outfielder. He switched to pitching when he joined Weyerhauser Timber, with team manager Ron Burke teaching him the windup. He added to his arsenal as his career took off, with Ron Danders introducing him to the rise ball, which became his best pitch.

His career was interrupted locally in 1964 when he was drafted into the service. He joined the Marine Corps and was a helicopter pilot during two tours in Vietnam, but he found time when he was stateside to play some fastpitch in Florida and California.  His Santa Ana, Calif., team won the All Navy League and he was named MVP.

He came out of the service in 1969 and returned to Portland where he resumed his dominating career. Because of work-related moves the next several years, he found himself frequently switching teams. During one of his more extended stints, with Brown’s Masonry in Lake Oswego, he had an 85-13 record. His next stop was Medford, where he strung together records of 25-2, 27-4, 45-3 and 47-8.

Not surprisingly, because of his pitching and hitting – did we say he could hit a little, too? – he was picked up often for tournaments. Included among his 40 ASA national championship tournaments is a current streak of playing in every MFP 55-and-over national since the classification was started. During the years he’s collected several armloads of MVP, all-tournament and All-America awards.

Age may have slowed him, but it hasn’t stopped him.  At age 61, he was allowed to move from A/Open ball and pitch at the B level as long as his Portland team would move up from C to B, which it did. It wasn’t until he turned 65 that he was allowed to drop down to the C classification.

One career highlight was when he faced ASA and Region 15 Hall-of-Famer Jimmy Moore in an ASA MFP 45-and-over national tournament. Trotter won 1-0 in eight innings. Another was when, at age 70 in 2009, he pitched the Southern Oregon Bandits team of youngsters he coached to the championship of the Seattle Open.